Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Things are still quiet on the Detroit sports scene. The Lions and Drew Brees? Much too early to even know if the Lions are interested. There's been no media leaks yet, so that subject is strictly on a wait and see basis. Dimitri Young is still slimmed down, so that takes care of the Tigers for the next couple of weeks. The Pistons fire up their stretch run tonight, but what more is there to say? We are in a point guard holding period till the trading deadline ends. The Wings? It's all about the playoffs, literally no one cares about the regular season. With the total lack of news to discuss, you know what that means?

It's pet peeve time.

There are certain sports issues that even I, as a long time sports fan, do not and will not care about. You just can't make me. When it comes to my following pet peeve, no matter how much you twist my arm, you'll only be twisting my arm, and pissing me off. Blame the Olympics hype, as they brought this subject to the front and center of my attention. So what am I talking about?

The media and their pipming of women's sports.

I know it's a bad choice of words, but that is what the MSM is doing...

I'm sorry, but I just can't get into them, despite the blatant attempts to popularize women's sports. Honestly, in the big scheme of things, they truly are fringe sports. Unfortunately, the MSM will never stop trying to convince us otherwise.

For example, why on earth, other than overt political correctness and pressure from the evil that is the NCAA, does the women's side of March Madness (With the women, it's actually March Blip-on-the-sports-radar) get nearly equal time and space as the men's tournament? I'm specifically talking about two distinct media entites, ESPN and the McPaper. They are two of the worst practitioners of hyping the women's NCAA. Did interest suddenly spike? I'd be news to me. Before the tournament, the women's college game generates no more respect than placement in the newspaper agate type and the bottom crawl on ESPN News' screen. But once tournament time comes around, what happens? Magiaclly, the game moves to front and center! No one I know cares. No one I know ever will.

Don't get me started on the media canonization of women's college coaches, such as with Pat Summitt. When ESPN gave over the top coverage in regard to Summitt breaking the all time wins record, they convinently didn't mention the low level of competition she faced for the majority of her career.

The media raves about the domination of coaches like Summitt and Geno Auriemma. They might be damn good, in fact they probably are damn good, but considering the lack of legitimate competition both coached against over the years, their large number wins doesn't say all that much. All it tells me is that they have coached for a a long ass time.

For decades, the number of truly top tier college programs could be counted on one hand. Things have improved some over the last decade or so, but the women's college game still has a larger majority of have-not programs than haves. There are many more opportunities for padding your record with gimme wins in the women's game than the men's. That a school with the stature of the University of Michigan cannot put together a competive program tells you all you need to know about the state of the woman's game.

Everything I said about the women's college game, goes for the WNBA as well. As much as I have ragged on ESPN's Bill Simmons in other places, he is right on with his ripping of the NBA in regard to the shoving of the WNBA down our gagging throats. What David Stern needs to realize is that in thrusting the WNBA upon us, with total disregard to what fans and the Neilson ratings say, 99% of the population will react with the same enthusiam as they would in taking a tablespoon of castor oil. As you might guess, that reaction is not positive.

Ever been to a WNBA game? I checked out a Detroit Shock game once. Only once. I didn't have much choice in the matter. I will say that I'll never go back. In watching the women's game up close, it just doesn't hold up to scrutny. The conventional wisdom that the women are more fundimentally sound is a complete fallacy. Talk about an urban legend. The women's game is played at half speed, yet they still can't make an uncontested layup, can't shoot a jumper straight, and the game is turnover city. But you see the occasional back door cut, so according to the MSM, they must be fundimentally sound. Right...

Women's baketball is on the point of this issue, but you could say the same things about women's soccer, women's Olympic events (Especially figure skating), women's softball, and any other chick sport. The women's (Name any game) is slower, not as creative, and basically boring.

More power to them, they can play all they want at any level. But...Do NOT shove women's sports my face as the equal to men's, and as something that I must watch.

Homer Simpson said it best. "If the Bible has taught us nothing else -- and it hasn't -- it's that girls should stick to girls' sports such as hot-oil wrestling, foxy-boxing, and such and such."

4 comments:

First, until last year I did not even know the women had March Madness, if fact I just assumed they had a regular season and that was it. The only reason why I discovered it last year was because of the MSU women, not that I followed, but it was all over the place.

Next, my biggest pet peeve with the WNBA is not so much that it sucks is that stupid harlem globetrotters ball they use. Why not use your standard orange (or whatever color it is!) ball for christs sake.

I guess it is just the "male pig" in me, but I agree with you on everything... the are slower and boring as hell. Not to say there aren't women that could kick my ass in certain sports out there but that sure as hell doesn't mean I am going to watch!

I'm no one you know, but I picked up your blog from one of the hockey blogs I read (sorry, don't remember which one). You're a good read.

Anyway, I've been watching the Team USA (mens) hockey games, and I thought you might know, or at least make up a fun explanation, for why Robert Esche has this picture of Kid Rock on his goalie mask. Any ideas?

I think both Bill Simmons and you are correct in that women's sports are being shoved down our throats. I am all for equal right and women should have just as many sporting opportunities as men, but women will just never have the same fan base.

Women's sports are less energetic and slower paced than most men sports and the amount of fans in the stands is indicative of that.

I enjoyed the wording of your post and thought it was fairly written. It may appear biased to some, but most of your points were valid.

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Who"s behind the scenes at TWFE?

I'm Al Beaton, aka Big Al, a life-long Detroit sports fan. Being fed up with the lack of quality sports coverage by the MSM, I started "The Wayne Fontes Experience.". 1100+ posts later, it remains to be seen if that was a good idea... (And no, I'm not Eddie Munster, despite what my widow's peak may have you thinking)